Get the story to fuel your conversation today.

11 Beautiful Abandoned Places Around the World

There are few things creepier than an abandoned building. But sometimes there's nothing more beautiful, either. These 11 places around the world take abandoned beauty to a whole new level, and make us lament that they were abandoned to begin with.

2. Holland Island; Chesapeake Bay

Holland Island, too, met its match in weather. People abandoned the island when storms began eroding the shore, the island slowly disappearing. The house picture collapsed in 2010, the last remaining home on Holland Island.

3. Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat's lifespan as a city was a mere 16 years. Founded in 1970, Pripyat inhabitants fled the city after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The city's nearly 50,000 citizens moved to escape the nuclear radiation, leaving Pripyat a ghost town.

5. Train Depot; Czestochowa, Poland

6. Hashima Island, Japan

Believe it or not, Hashima Island used to be known for its coal mines. It was founded by Mitsubishi in 1890 for coal extraction, but the company closed the plant in 1974, leaving it a ghost island.

7. Kasteel van Mesen; Lede, Belgium

Kasteel van mesen has been home to everything from a tobacco factory to a boarding school. But it was abandoned in the 1970s, and razed to the ground in 2010.

8. Hotel Salto del Tequendama; Colombia

The Hotel Salto del Tequendama closed in the 1990s. The two leading explanations: it was haunted and guests refused to stay there, or pollution in the river forced closure. I'll sure know which one I choose to believe.

9. Villa Epecuén; Argentina

Villa Epecuén was once a thriving resort town. In 1985, water broke through the dam, and the village was abandoned. It was submerged under water in the 1990s, before the water receded leaving it as it is today.